Artist Statement

I paint with a dirty brush, a lot of white, and my glasses off. My basic palette is ultramarine, burnt Umber, burnt Sienna, yellow ochre, white, and occasional incidents of violet, cadmium red and yellow. I often restrict myself to one or two colors plus white.

Starting with random digital photos shot in public places, I draw with paint while observing negative space and finding simple shapes and letter forms, particularly letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet. I work the composition as a combination of Sudoku and Kaballah.

My goal is to portray the moment when light hits the retina and traverses the optic nerve, but has not yet been interpreted by the brain. I love ambiguous form in the context of formal realism. I choose anonymous figures in routine, often shot from my car window while stopped at intersections. I am most interested in the figures in the background. The result is a study in movement and irregular lighting, so part of the image is more in focus, or the contrast is so low that part of the image is obscured, like an after image, or a vague memory. I avoid interpretation on any social or political level, and, although most of my scenes are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the neighborhoods of Squirrel Hill and Oakland, the location does not matter. I am looking for a universal experience.

Before 2007 I worked in a more precise photorealist style. My primary subject matter for the 2 preceding decades was the American Diner.

In 2018 I returned to a medium I enjoyed in and just after graduate school where I enrolled as a printmaking major. I carve stamps out of rubber or polymer to make very small prints, and to use as texture and pattern in larger paintings.